Detroit’s Big Three focus on brains over brawn

This year's Detroit auto show is all about smart, practical vehicles people will actually buy

by
Brendan McAleer | January 12, 2016

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Not with thunder, but with a murmur. Whereas last year’s North American International Auto Show was all power and fury, the 2016 version is kinder, gentler, cuddlier. This isn’t Eminem’s Detroit, this is Da Teddybears.

Still, there’s power aplenty in the Motor City, it’s just not really coming from the Big Three. Infiniti dropped a twin-turbo V6 in their Q60 coupe, taking the flight to BMW. Lexus pulled the sheets off its LC 500 coupe, barely changed from the original concept and stuffed with eight cylinders of finely tuned Japanese menace.

But the Big Three automakers were strangely muted this year. Never mind that gasoline has never been cheaper, the main debuts from all domestic manufacturers were more about brain than brawn. For Canadians, who pay a lot more at the pump than our neighbours to the South, that’s a good thing. Sure, Detroit didn’t lead with their muscle this year at the Cobo Center, but that just means they were boxing clever.

Fiat-Chrysler

2016 Chrysler Pacifica

Handout, Chrysler

2016 Chrysler Pacifica

Darren Begg, Driving

2016 Chrysler Pacifica

Darren Begg, Driving

2016 Chrysler Pacifica

Handout, Chrysler

2016 Chrysler Pacifica

Darren Begg, Driving

2016 Chrysler Pacifica

Darren Begg, Driving

2016 Chrysler Pacifica

Handout, Chrysler

2016 Chrysler Pacifica

Handout, Chrysler

2016 Chrysler Pacifica

Handout, Chrysler

2016 Chrysler Pacifica

Darren Begg, Driving

2016 Chrysler Pacifica

Darren Begg, Driving

2016 Chrysler Pacifica

Darren Begg, Driving

2016 Chrysler Pacifica

Handout, Chrysler

Last year, with dragstrips still smoking ruins after the arrival of the 707-horsepower Hellcat twins, Fiat-Chrysler was all about Hemis and superchargers and buying stock in a tire company. As expected, this year we got confirmation that a Hellcat version of the Jeep Grand Cherokee is on the way, but instead of fanfare, this news came as a sidebar.

Instead, Chrysler‘s big reveal of the show was the Pacifica minivan, a restyled replacement for the Town & Country featuring curvier lines and plug-in hybrid capability. Supercharger? Nope. Instead, you get an optional on-board vacuum cleaner.

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While the Pacifica is an old name (you may remember the defunct three-row crossover), Chrysler’s game here is to give the minivan a fresh new appeal with clever technologies and a more crossover-like look. The standard vehicle comes with a nine-speed automatic and 287-horsepower V6 engine; both front- and all-wheel drive are available.

Even better is the new plug-in variant, the first time anyone’s offered a hybridized minivan. If getting the kids to school involves an urban commute, the blended average fuel economy rating of 2.94 L/100 km is simply excellent. No, it’s not an overpowered muscle car; yes, it’s something that might actually be of use to Canadian families.

Ford

2017 Ford Fusion

Handout, Ford

2017 Ford Fusion

Handout, Ford

2017 Ford Fusion

Handout, Ford

2017 Ford Fusion

Darren Begg, Driving

2017 Ford Fusion

Darren Begg, Driving

2017 Ford Fusion

Darren Begg, Driving

2017 Ford Fusion

Handout, Ford

Last year’s story was the tale of the Ford GT, a surprise supercar that stuck a pin in the NSX‘s balloon and made every other car in the show look like the soft option. Ford brought a GT again this year, kitted out in Avro Arrow white, but they tucked it away in a corner, upstairs at their booth.

Right out front in place of pride was a far more pedestrian offering, the new Ford Fusion. While it isn’t going to get your heart racing in the same way the flying buttresses of the wild GT will, the Fusion is perhaps the more practical choice. And, surprisingly, it’s pretty darn sporty as well.

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First, the sensible shoe version: the Fusion hybrid. Equipped with a 2.0-litre gasoline engine and the optional plug-in capacity of the Energi, the hybrid offers much the same capability as before; however, it now gets a slightly freshened look, and the welcome addition of Ford’s next-generation Sync system.

Want to get fancy with your Fusion? Ford’s got you covered there, too, with the Platinum trim level, which includes higher-quality leather, a specific grille and polished 19-inch alloys. I like to call this trim: Why Bother With a Lincoln.

And maybe we were too hasty to assume there wasn’t much muscle from Detroit at this show. It’s just hidden, is all: Underneath the reserved sheet metal of the Fusion Sport is a twin-turbo Ecoboost V6 making 325 horses, delivered to all four wheels. Dang – never mind the Taurus, here’s the real SHO reborn.

General Motors

2017 Chevrolet Bolt

Geoff Robins, AFP/Getty Images

2017 Chevrolet Bolt

Handout, Chevrolet

2017 Chevrolet Bolt

Handout, Chevrolet

2017 Chevrolet Bolt

Handout, Chevrolet

2017 Chevrolet Bolt

Handout, Chevrolet

2017 Chevrolet Bolt

Handout, Chevrolet

2017 Chevrolet Bolt

Geoff Robins, AFP/Getty Images

2017 Chevrolet Bolt

Handout, Chevrolet

2017 Chevrolet Bolt

Handout, Chevrolet

2017 Chevrolet Bolt

Handout, Chevrolet

2017 Chevrolet Bolt

Handout, Chevrolet

2017 Chevrolet Bolt

Handout, Chevrolet

Sure, GM showed off a higher-performance trim of its new Camaro, but the car everyone’s excited about is the new Bolt. No, not the Volt, Bolt. With a B.

This pure EV gets a Leaf-crushing range of 320 kilometres, and with a starting price somewhere in the high 30s, is far more affordable than a Tesla would be. Performance isn’t too bad either, with a sprint to 100 km/h taking just under seven seconds — about as good as an older Volkswagen GTI.

The Corvette and the Camaro get the buff book covers, but the Bolt’s the car to actually bring (literally) electric performance to the people. It’s even far less dorky looking than the concussed-frog of Nissan‘s popular plug-in.

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Likewise, Buick‘s muscular Avista concept wasn’t as important as the Envision, a midsize crossover that fits between the tiny Encore and the large-family-sized Enclave. The Camaro-based concept car looks cool (even if it does have a name that reminds you of antivirus software), but it’s the crossover that’ll actually fill both Buick’s bottom line and the driveways of real people.

Buick Avista concept

Similarly, GMC’s display was all ’bout the big blingy grilles on pickup trucks, but its grand reveal was of the new Acadia, a crossover that comes with four-cylinder power as standard (V6 is optional). It looks great, and is some 300+ kilograms lighter than the outgoing car. Regrettably, the weight savings seems to have resulted in some loss of space, but as a rival to the likes of the Toyota Highlander and Ford Explorer, the Acadia is once again the type of car people might actually buy.

The concepts are great. Big horsepower numbers make for big dreams. At the end of every show, however, all the displays come down and – as Eminem himself might say – back to reality, oh there goes gravity. For the Big Three this year, the show might have gone quietly, but when they tally up their sales results later in the year, they’ll find playing it smart has a strength all its own.